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Eraserhead

  • 1977
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
137K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
2,463
270
Jack Nance in Eraserhead (1977)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer0:47
2 Videos
96 Photos
Body HorrorDark ComedyMonster HorrorFantasyHorror

Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newborn mutant child.Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newborn mutant child.Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newborn mutant child.

  • Director
    • David Lynch
  • Writer
    • David Lynch
  • Stars
    • Jack Nance
    • Charlotte Stewart
    • Allen Joseph
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.3/10
    137K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    2,463
    270
    • Director
      • David Lynch
    • Writer
      • David Lynch
    • Stars
      • Jack Nance
      • Charlotte Stewart
      • Allen Joseph
    • 768User reviews
    • 196Critic reviews
    • 87Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 2 nominations total

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 0:47
    Official Trailer
    Remembering David Lynch
    Clip 1:46
    Remembering David Lynch
    Remembering David Lynch
    Clip 1:46
    Remembering David Lynch

    Photos96

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    + 91
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    Top cast21

    Edit
    Jack Nance
    Jack Nance
    • Henry Spencer
    • (as John Nance)
    Charlotte Stewart
    Charlotte Stewart
    • Mary X
    Allen Joseph
    Allen Joseph
    • Mr. X
    Jeanne Bates
    Jeanne Bates
    • Mrs. X
    Judith Roberts
    Judith Roberts
    • Beautiful Girl Across the Hall
    • (as Judith Anna Roberts)
    Laurel Near
    Laurel Near
    • Lady in the Radiator
    V. Phipps-Wilson
    • Landlady (long version)
    Jack Fisk
    Jack Fisk
    • Man in the Planet
    Jean Lange
    • Grandmother
    Thomas Coulson
    • The Boy
    John Monez
    • Bum
    Darwin Joston
    Darwin Joston
    • Paul
    T. Max Graham
    • The Boss
    • (as Neil Moran)
    Hal Landon Jr.
    Hal Landon Jr.
    • Pencil Machine Operator
    Jennifer Lynch
    Jennifer Lynch
    • Little Girl
    Brad Keeler
    • Little Boy
    Peggy Reavey
    Peggy Reavey
    • Person Digging in the Alley (long version)
    • (as Peggy Lynch)
    Doddie Keeler
    • Person Digging in the Alley (long version)
    • Director
      • David Lynch
    • Writer
      • David Lynch
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews768

    7.3137.2K
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    Featured reviews

    8Xstal

    Scratch, Eliminate, Annul...

    You need a clear head and focused intent prior to settling down to an abstract and uncoupled vision of a world that's so out of phase with anything you have or will ever come across - wlack & bhite but not monochrome.
    10Skeptic459

    The reason that I got into films in the first place!!!

    In film school it is not cool to say you like David Lynch. Film students claim he is just a poor mans version of Luis Bunuel. Yes, I would say that Bunuel is more talented and is the king of surrealism. But Lynch is very good and his films do challenge the viewer. I actually have a deep affection for his films. When his films work, they really work! However, when they do not work, for example, Twin Peaks, Fire, Walk with Me or Lost Highway then they quickly launch themselves into self parody. Many people claim his material is too inconsistent and indulgent to be really liked very much.

    What I find strange is that one reviewer here states that he feel duped by Lynch. Duped? Why? The films all have a story. They just have a narrative that works differently to conventional film making. If you look hard at the film and try to understand the subtext then you will pick up on what the film is about.

    I saw this when I was 16. I knew nothing about films or film making then. A friend and I were bored so we decided to see a movie at capitol cinema. Capitol cinema used to be a cinema that played arty or small independent films. They used to play midnight showings of eraserhead. There was always someone smoking a joint in that place. However, you don't need drugs for this film. Lynch is drugs. This film just buzzes you out.

    I had no idea what Eraserhead was about. I had never heard of Lynch and knew nothing about surrealism. I went in and was just totally blown away! Before this I had only really seen commercial blockbuster movies. Lynch gave me a whole knew perspective on what cinema is capable of. Eraserhead is the stuff of dreams. Lynch believes that watching a film is entering a dream state. Both my friend and I did not know what the hell was going on. I was fascinated...

    Later I would learn this is a film about Lynch's own obsessions. His hatred of Philadelphia. His fear and anxiety at being a father. The film is just full of a kind of a compulsive, paranoid neurosis. It is a waking nightmare. He also seems to parody the nuclear family. 'Did you have sexual intercourse with my daughter?' Meanwhile that weird blond woman in his radiator seems to represent his escape. A way to transcend from his grim world. What I also find bizarre is that people then accuse him of having no sense of humor! What? There are always funny moments in his films. 'Did you have sexual intercourse with my daughter?'

    Jack Nance is also very good as the main character. He seems to be playing the director and he gives a performance that is distant, spaced out and yet emotionally vulnerable. A really strange mix. The imagery is just brilliant. Black and white in an industrial wasteland. There is smoke here of course. It wouid not be a Lynch film without smoke! It also has a cool, grating industrial soundtrack that sets your nerves on edge. This is perfectly effective for the bleak tone of the film. It is so visually striking that the viewer will not forget the imagery quickly. There is a reason that this is a cult film. The other distinctive feature of this film is the long lingering shots. This reminds me of Jim Jarmusch and his movies like Dead Man and Ghost Dog. The length of the shots seems to have the effect of immersing the viewer in this strange industrial wasteland.

    I have my own copy that I lend to friends. They then normally give it back to me saying that they only got through the first half hour. They also normally tell me that I am a weirdo for liking it. I think what frustrates people most about Lynch is that he will not give any explanations of what the film is about. So any interpretation is as good as any other. People want the film to be explained so they can understand it. Who said films must be understood or comprehensible? Why can't a film be abstract piece of art like a painting? Lynch's films are like an acid trip. To quote the great gonzo, Hunter S Thompson, 'buy the ticket, take the ride and if it gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, then put it down to forced consciousness expansion.'

    So in other words, relax, stick it on and just run with it. Travel into someone else's nightmare for a change...
    hursto

    how weird can you get?

    I needed to read all the other reviews here before I was game to make a comment. I'm a great fan of Lynch's Wild at Heart having seen it four times, and recently loved Lost Highway. But this one left me baffled. I'd heard of it for years, but can make little sense of it. It certainly didn't bore me, in fact I was fascinated to see where the plot led. Tried to analyse it in terms of symbolism, but decided that if I have to do that the film isn't really speaking to me. The dark broodiness is impressive, the squishiness repulsive, and Henry's hairdo is unforgettable!
    9The_Movie_Cat

    Cinematic genius, but definitely NOT a date movie.

    I can think of very few films that have sound as their most commendable feature. The Exorcist is one, a film that, aside from infrequent strains of `Tubular Bells', adopts minimal incidental music. This is laudable in a horror genre where shocks are clearly signposted – and predicted – by overgenerous musical stings. The Exorcist may be flawed, but its avoidance of this field cliché is worthy of praise.

    Eraserhead is the other film that excels in sound. A frankly disturbing concoction of industrial score and white noise with undercurrents of musical hall and sonorous church organ, it is almost an extra character in the film, and easily it's most prominent factor.

    Yet Eraserhead is to be recommended for more than its incidentals. An impenetrable and gloomy work, what is it actually about? Who is the credited `man in the planet' who pulls levers that control giant spermatozoa? Many questions like this permeate a film which perhaps has to be seen several times to get over the initial shock of it's avant gardism. Lynch extracts the everyday and supplants it with the exceptionally bizarre. The experience of meeting a girlfriend's parents for the first time is never worse than here, where the parents in question gyrate spasmodically to the animated legs of a blood-spitting chicken. It's these scenes – along with the deformed mutant baby – that could lend the film the air of an abortion debate. Birth and repressed sexuality thrive throughout the film, from suckling puppies to the seductive appeal of the `beautiful girl across the hall' and a mother-in-law that gets too close for comfort. I guess the entire film could be a man's mental breakdown when faced with the premature responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood. Though to be honest I couldn't even begin to imagine what it's really all about.

    Encroaching blackness fills every scene, where lights are intermittent at best, and at worse fail completely. Often sets – particularly the bedroom when `Mary X' is feeding the child – are like prison cells. Two of the most eerie segments involve a title-explaining dream (?) where Henry's (Nance's) head is carved into pencil rubbers and an unsettling musical number from the `lady in the radiator'. This is the same lady with two candyfloss-like lumps on her cheeks that alternates her stage appearances between stamping on giant sperm to singing with religious convictions.

    Direction and cinematography are brilliant throughout, though the climax is the ultimate extension of a film that borders on darker, extremely unpleasant aspects of reality. I took a girl to see this film once, where the conclusion formed the final straw in what could be seen as a cycle of repellent imagery. I wonder why I never saw her again?
    TeaBunny

    Amazing masterpiece of filmmaking!

    You have to dissect it, watch it more than once, eat, breathe it and live it before you can get it. There are lots of explanations for all of the things that "make no sense"... it's art in it's purest form - you take away from it what you want! You can see Henry struggling with suddenly being thrust into the role of father and husband, his sin, his temptation, his life, his death, his dreams... too much symbolism to even get into here... anyone who dismisses this film as "junk that makes no sense" will never get it, and that's OK. But for the rest of us, it's on our "Top Ten Films of All Time" list. Brilliant and beautiful and horrifying! Makes you think for weeks... YEARS. I love it. Highly recommended to those who are open-minded! AMAZING FILM!!

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When production on the film took longer than expected, David Lynch had to sleep in the same room used as Henry's bedroom for over a year.
    • Goofs
      Henry takes off the wrong shoe/sock to dry off.
    • Quotes

      Lady in the Radiator: [singing] In Heaven, everything is fine. In Heaven, everything is fine. In Heaven, everything is fine. You've got your good things. And I've got mine. In Heaven, everything is fine. In Heaven, everything is fine. In Heaven, everything is fine. You've got your good things. And you've got mine. In Heaven, everything is fine.

    • Crazy credits
      There are no opening credits, just a long, tilted close-up of the face of Jack Nance.
    • Alternate versions
      First DVD edition was printed in open matte format (1:1.33)
    • Connections
      Edited into The History of the Hands (2016)
    • Soundtracks
      Lady in the Radiator Song
      Composed by Peter Ivers

      Lyrics by David Lynch (uncredited)

      Performed (Sung) by Peter Ivers and Fats Waller (as "Fats" Waller) (Pipe Organ)

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    FAQ22

    • How long is Eraserhead?Powered by Alexa
    • Who is the Man in the Planet?
    • What is David Lynch's interpretation of this film?
    • What are the "Glen or Glenda" references?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 3, 1978 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Cabeza de borrador
    • Filming locations
      • Center for Advanced Film Studies, American Film Institute - 2021 N. Western Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • American Film Institute (AFI)
      • Libra Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $100,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $37,796
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 29 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono(original release)
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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